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Think, if you dare, where the Knicks stood before Tom Thibodeau. Think about the endless cycle of coaches, the dysfunction and wasted energy. The millions down the drain. Think about the coach missing practice because of a love triangle and a Matt Barnes right hook. Or the coach liking Twitter porn. Or the coach peddling delusion while winning 17 games.
Now look at the Knicks. A hope in the destitution of NYC sports. Look at the roster, a group that would’ve been easily dismissed as operating with a play-in ceiling if it never connected with Thibodeau.
Mitchell Robinson? A second-round pick who was a living, breathing personal foul before Thibs. Immanuel Quickley and Quentin Grimes? Late first-round picks projected as end-of-rotation players. RJ Barrett? A bust as a rookie. Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson? Neither were even offered extensions from the teams that drafted them.
And the Knicks locked them up. Assuming Quickley signs an extension before the Oct. 23 deadline, all these players, minus Grimes, but including Donte DiVincenzo and Josh Hart, are guaranteed until at least 2026.
Thibodeau’s deal? It expires after the 2024-25 season. Sooner rather than later, the Knicks’ best coach in two decades — the man most responsible from turning a franchise from rubble to respectability — deserves a contract extension.
“[Thibodeau] has extremely important, for the culture, holding each other accountable, all that different type of stuff. He’s extremely important,” Randle said Friday. “What he does day in and day out to prepare not only himself but to prepare our team, it’s vital. I think we take a lot from it. We know going into a game we’re going to be prepared.
“We know every day we’re going to come in and practice and practice the right way. He’s not going to allow us to do otherwise.”
Listen, we understand the logic of waiting to extend Thibodeau until after the season. Why not, right? But there are important reasons to commit.
Beyond the significance of locking in and rewarding a proven commodity — thereby promoting the “continuity” that has become the new franchise buzzword — it’s hard to coach without security.
It’s especially hard in New York, where Knicks coaches have received exactly one contract extension (not counting deals to remove interim tags) in the past 24 years (and that went to Isiah Thomas, wholly undeserving).
Erik Spoelstra commands full buy-in from the Heat roster because there’s unwavering support from the top of the organization. Pat Riley once rejected a plea from LeBron James — LeBron James — to replace Spoelstra.
Thibodeau, meanwhile, barely had time to accept his 2021 Coach of the Year trophy before being repositioned to the hot seat.
That following season, team executive William Wesley was reportedly throwing Thibodeau under the bus during conversations with owner James Dolan, according to SNY. By last November, it felt as if Thibs was a losing road trip away from getting canned. It’s the unfortunate nature of the job at MSG.
But we know what happened next. The coach adjusted his rotation and style, skewing younger and bucking his reputation. Thibodeau’s offense finished fourth in the NBA. He helped push one of the NBA’s youngest rosters to a playoff series victory, the franchise’s furthest advancement in a decade.
Through it all, the team has largely steered clear of controversy. Sure, we can criticize Thibodeau for not addressing Randle’s mood swings or for allowing Barrett to sprain his ankle in garbage time.
But these are minor issues compared to the chaos of pre-Thibs. He was tasked with the very difficult — to guide a winning team while the front office treaded water — and it’s hard to imagine better execution.
Thibodeau, whose salary for next season is believed to be in the $5 million range (far below that of newly signed Pistons coach Monty Williams), has more wins in his first three seasons than any Knicks coach not named Red Holzman or Pat Riley.
Good company. And those other coaches weren’t leading a team that was accumulating draft assets for a superstar trade.
“He’s a not only a great coach, but also a great inspirer,” Quickley said Friday. “Even today he was talking about the day-to-day grind of you have to start with the end in mind, and basically you have to think about how hard you have to work every single day to be where you want to be at the end of the year.”
The Knicks should know that kind of coach doesn’t come around often. Or they could just ask the Bulls, who fired Thibodeau in 2015 and still haven’t recovered.
“Every time we practice I almost know what Thibs is about to say before he says it. It’s great,” Randle said. “And chemistry just keeps getting stronger and stronger, building off that. The trust is there more and more. It’s important to have a coach for a long period of time.”
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